PR in 2008: Forcasting the Changing Media

Naturally when we asked the PR industry to submit predictions for 2008, we received several about the future of the media. Here are a few choice ones for your enjoyment:

Participating in popular news will continue to make us all collectively more stupid as a nation. From Fox News to GQ, news bites will gloss over, or ignore, what’s really important in life. Man’s search for meaning takes another gut punch.

Gravy will make a comeback at holiday tables across this great nation, healthy hearts be damned. It’s not that hard people – drippings, butter, flour, stir. Related: Rachael Ray will continue her march toward world dominance unless someone stops her. Someone, please stop her!

Fines against Comcast by the FCC will not be collected. The FCC will begin to issue new rules on VNRs. Stations will increasingly disclose use of 3rd party video–in part because of the amount of political content during the election year. There will be growing demand for PR pros who can place multimedia content online.

Fox News actually reports a story that has credible evidence and is based on fact. Promise never again to report stories based on innuendo, rumor, Republican dogma or mood.

Despite Rupert Murdoch’s assurances that the Wall Street Journal will maintain its editorial integrity under his ownership, he finds he can not resist temptation or fight his natural journalistic DNA. He cuts editorial staff by half, increases ad dollars from online porn sites by double, and turns WSJ into nations’ second leading scandal sheet and celebrity peep show.

And for the heck of it: Televisions are networked just like PCs.

–Rob Gelphman, Chairmain, Marketing Work Group of MoCa (Multimedia over Coax Alliance)

With the relaunch of the Industry Standard (I believe as a blog) and the popularity of GigaOm, VentureBeat and TechCrunch, I envision more “blogomerates” gaining prominence and influence on the media landscape.

Traditional media have already started creating blogs in specific topic areas but this will need to branch out more in terms of open comment policies and having dedicated bloggers versus reporters who blog.

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